R
Gavin,
I get the impression that a lot of the cars in the list are not in very good
condition, and that they usually get used only for very short trips. In the
snow belt most of them seem to sit idle most of the year.
My MGBGT put on 80 miles per day as a commute car for 4 years. With just a
fluid check, I would run it from the Monterey bay area to Santa Barbra
or Yosomite. I never had a problem with it on these trips. Of course
now the car is awaiting a head rebuild as the unleaded fuel has taken its
toll on the valves.
I drove the TR3 between Monterey Bay and Portland without problems. It went
on many a trip with the Triumph Travelers. The worst that happened was that
it started fouling the #3 spark plug frequently during trips before I
took it off the road for a major restoration.
The Land Rover carried livestock, 7 bales of hay weekly, manure & fire wood
for the 15 years that I have owned it. It was in very poor condition
when I purchased it and towed it home behind the Land Rover I owned then.
Unfortunatly, unsteadf of going through it and bringing it up to good shape,
I did what I suspect many on this list do. I did enough to get it running,
didn't go far and just fixed things as they broke. Every time I took it to
the Portland All British Field Meet, I spent about half a day fixing
something so she would make it home. Thankfully, each time I fixed
somthing, I tried to do some additional work to bring her into a little
better condition that she was in before she broke. So little by little
over the years, she has gone from a badly neglected basket case to a
sound car. When the engine died, she got the transmission (which was
working fine) rebuilt, the leaky radiator replaced, the almost inaudible
horn replaced, the rusty radiator bulkhead taken down to bare metal and
repainted, the frame from the bulkhead forward, taken down and repainted,
a new speedometer and cable installed.
I think many of us purchase cars in poor condition and do not have the
money or time to spend to bring them up to a good reliable condition,
then get into the mind space of just doing the minimum to keep them
running to & from the local store.
A good condition British car that is properly maintained should be very
reliable. The hard part seems to be commiting to getting a mechanically
funky car into good condition. Reading the net traffic, one could easly
assume that the good LBCs got shipped out of the US and only the neglected
fixer uppers are left. "couse now, it could also be that those of us
with neglected cars post a lot for help and support, while those with
good condition cars, just sit back, and read confident that their LBC
would never be allowed to get into as bad of condition as cars being
discussed.
TeriAnn
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